Midnight snacking on spaghetti

Pasta snack attack

It's 1:08am and I'm craving something to nosh on....sweet, salty, or both? The options include Cadbury chocolate bars, purchased at Heathrow en route to France; homemade French lentil soup using beautiful AOC designated blue gray lentilles from Puy. In the end, tonight's leftovers called to me...spaghetti tossed with garlic and olive oil, petit pois, grape tomato, and crevette. 

Now R is playing DJ and we are rocking out to an eclectic collection of rock and everything under the sun. Best part of country living...and a well-insulated house is that we are cranking it!!

Tonight's playlist includes Algerian singer Khaled Cheb's "Aïcha", then a Dutch rapper, now "Madame et Messieurs...Encore une fois", followed by the original Italian version of "Gloria" by Umberto Tozzi, and now Kiss' "I was made for loving you", Yes' "Owner of a lonely heart". The closing number is Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler".

What are some great songs you love to rock out to? Please comment, as I need to expand my musical world! And more importantly, when no one is looking, what do you snack on?

French holidays

J’espère que vous avez passé un joyeuse Saint Valentin mes chéris!

R and I had a quiet Valentine's Day morning chez nous, each studying our own subject (him Cisco, and me my new Canon). Surprisingly, I was not as sore as I expected to be, a day following the 3.5 hour randonnée in Le Vuache. On Vday, gray clouds and lack of sun didn't deter us from going out for our daily walk. I felt a need to stretch out my leg muscles a little, not to mention my DSLR trigger finger too. For our walk, we chose nearby Grésin, where we had taken a fateful motorcycle ride last fall and gotten stuck in some muck and stones. This time, it was just our two feet that carried us across the Rhône onto le chemin des Espagnols (crossing the river via le pont de Grésin).

Hiking Le Vuache, on my birthday

This morning the late winter sun rose again on another February 13th, and I turned one year older. In Boston, I usually spend birthdays with family and friends—and sometimes not just one birthday celebration but one spread across several weekends with different friends. This happened last year. I felt lucky because some years, my birthday plans are foiled due to pesky Noreasters and blizzards! But this year, there is little to no snowfall in my part of the Juras. Instead of spending my birthday indoors, R and I got a little closer to nature with some new friends.

We met at the church at Chaumont, next to the mairie. I could tell this was going to be a great hike...because the starting point of Chaumont is just beautiful, with old farmhouses, a very quaint centre-ville composed of one main street basically, and views of the château ruins atop the highest point of Chaumont. Our group of fifteen (including me and R) were composed of expats from different countries around the world. We already knew a few Dutch friends, and quite coincidentally, there was a Scottish woman there who was also in R's softball league years ago. But for the most part, the rest were complete strangers, but not for long. During the day, each of us took turns leading the group. I started conversations with a good number of people who were hiking alongside me at different points of the trail, meeting a Norwegian (this time I knew a bit more about Norway), two Turkish, a Peruvian, a Hungarian-German, a Malaysian, a Scot, a true Genevoise (born and raised), and a few Swiss Germans. 

Celebration for CNY and Egypt

Two and a half hours of feasting with my French neighbors. We started off with cassis aperos avec les amuse-geules (literally amuse mouths) of salted peanuts, smoked almonds, and preserved plums which I brought back from Boston.  

Les entrées: housemade shumai with pork and shrimp, followed by lettuce wraps with Vietnamese eggrolls (nems), fresh mint, cilantro.  

Les plats principaux: Chinese egg noodles stir fried with red pork, napa, mushrooms, broccoli, julienned carrots and red peppers, onions, and garlic in an oyster sauce; steamed whole dorade royale in soy/ginger/scallion sauce.  

En dessert: Tarte aux pommes; coconut tapioca pudding perfumed with sliced bananas. Exhausted..but happy. Je suis prête pour une sieste.

Meat vocabulaire & cow's feet spotted

Give a French, American, Chinese, or Japanese butcher a cow or a pig, and you'll end up with very different cuts of beef. Why? Because it's inherent in the cuisine and culture, or is it culture before cuisine? Which came first?

I found a great wiki page deciphering different cuts of French, American and Dutch beef. With this in mind, I'm hoping to be better informed the next time I'm at la boucherie. For further reading you can also consult Posted in Paris. To find out more about the food you are eating read The Omnivore's Dilemma, or check out The Meatrix (which my friend R tuned me into years ago).

As a primer for my future market outings, I compiled this list so I could be a more informed buyer. That gorgeous round of fromage de brebis? It's from an ewe, a female sheep. My friend M's sister is a large animal veterinarian who specializes in cows (but she also knows a thing or two about sheep having participated in the 4H circles). Hoping you can correct me if I got any of the terms wrong. Thanks in advance!

Quiche aux poireaux, courgettes, poivron rouge

Do you ever go through phases of obsessively eating, or cooking one thing? A friend of mine, when she first moved to France, was offered foie gras too many times. Seven years later, she still has an aversion to it. Another friend devoured so many blueberries she started turning blue! My friend V had a strong addiction to a certain chain's Korean style chicken wings for a while, and then she couldn't eat it for a while.

Moi, lately my cooking has centered around the Asian kitchen. Could it be related to my new bamboo steamer, the latest "gadget" in my repertoire? Or my well-stocked Asian pantry? Actually come to think of it, my newfound appreciation for Asian but in particular Chinese cuisine started a few years ago with a book my good friend S gifted me. Serve the People, an American-Chinese journalist's account of eating her way through China, really sparked my interest in Chinese cuisine and in visiting China too, so I could eat knife-cut noodles and taste the heat of schezuan peppercorns. After reading that, I quickly moved on to Fuschia Dunlop's book, and then another one whose name I can't remember now. Funny how I grew up wanting to eat anything but Chinese food except of course, Mom and co's homecooked meals.

Anyway, the other day, I thought I'd attempt cooking something very French to balance all the Asian meals. You know, ying and yang. My French dish of choice? Quiche aux poireaux, courgettes, et poivron rouge.

Singer, American or not?

Last week while at Helene's house, I noticed a beautiful piece of needlework in the living room. The piece, handmade by Helene's grand-daughter many years ago, was of a needlecraft workshop. Colorful spools of thread, skeins of yarn, a scarf in the making, buttons, a cute little sign saying "Home is where the heart is", sewing baskets. And in the middle a Singer table sewing machine.

Cooking up a storm

After a successful trip to Lyon this past Sunday, my pantry is fully stocked, enough supplies to prepare a CNY's feast for R and the neighbors. Attempting to have oversight of my pantry, I decided to organize the Asian vs non-Asian goods which were haphazardly piled onto one another. Post re-organization, the lentils, red beans, corn meal, couscous, lasagna sheets, and long grain rice (among other things) are grouped together; they live below green mung beans, red azuki beans, soybeans, bean thread, and my 4 precious boxes of tofu (AOT). However, the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, rice vinegar, fish sauce, and oyster sauce all live in perfect harmony.

Lyon sights and tastes

Beautiful Lyon on a spring-like Sunday in early February.

One of the best things about living where we live—although we enjoy a quiet country lifestyle, we are centrally located. To the North, Geneva and the rest of Switzerland. To the Northeast, Paris is a short 2.5 hours by TGV. And to the South, about 90 minutes via the A40 and A42, is Lyon, highly regarded as the gastronomical capital of France and home to many Michelin-starred restaurants and Les Halles of Paul Bocuse fame.

I am charmed by its people, history, architecture, and colorful arrondisements. Besides being a foodie lover's paradise, it is a very livable French city as well with a lovely waterfront which has been given back to the Lyonnais (sort of like how the Big Dig gave Boston back some green parks). I will be writing more on Lyon and French food soon, but for now, I'll expound on what I found in Chinatown.

On this fine Sunday, some Lyonnais were enjoying the cafes along the beautiful riverfront, while others preferred to leaf through old hardcovers and paperbacks at the book market. Still others were taking in weather in the high 50s F by walking, jogging, or bicycling along the water. I had good intentions to check out les traboules, l’amphithéâtre des Trois Gauls, and revisit Les Halles. However, the weather was so nice that we decided to stay close to the Rhone. Shedding our wintry layers, we strolled around La Presqu'île, Chinatown, and then the nearby Middleastern and Indian quartiers. Our mission - watch the dragon dance, shop at local supermarkets, get a feel for the different neighborhoods, and dine well.

Stalking the wild asparagus

With so little snow this winter, and temps in the mid 50's this weekend, my mind is turning to spring and springtime activities. Yesterday, I started thinking about my 2011 garden and remembered R saying morels, or morilles grow along the fence, near the new raspberry bushes. A Google search to learn more about these springtime delicacies resulted in a pleasant find of "Stalking The Wild Asparagus". Published in 1962 it's Euell Gibbon's account of finding and eating what nature provides. I'm sort of living that life now and it's interesting to see what Mother Nature can provide, as long as you know how to identify and prepare the food.

A list of wild (and not so wild) finds. The next time you're out walking in the woods or even in Central Park, look around, up and down. You never know what you may find. In NYC, there's a mushroom expert who leads classes on foraging in NYC, something my foodie friend A and I would like to try one day.

March to April - Wild asparagus can be found nearby. I think I've seen the evergreen parts of these plants, but never gotten close enough to see the tender spears. Come spring, I will be keeping a close eye on the nearby fields, dry walls, country roads and around oak trees. If you want to try stalking them with me, take caution. The evergreen part has thorns, so wear gloves and bring a sharp knife. Harvest carefully so there will be more for the next harvest.